Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Lanvin ♥ H&M collection finally came out today in Madrid! And like a proper fashionista (or a Lanvin fan at least!), I was all informed and prepared for the event! Only 4 stores in the entire city had the collection: Velazquez 36, Goya 81, Gran Via 32 and Gran Via 37. So very early today I headed down to the H&M in Velazquez, Barrio de Salamanca. The line, to no surprise at all, was already very very long... The first ones were probably there since 5 or 6.

Once your turn came up, you only had 15 minutes to shop. And you couldn't take 2 of the same item. When 'security' got the order to open the ropes to let a new group in... well it was sort of a murder in the dance floor situation. You had to run to get first to whatever it was you wanted to get. Fast. Fast. Fast! Ahh... women and fashion! hehe

And it was also SO sad to see how the groups that would go in before you would literally clear rack after rack... The T-Shirts were the first ones to go, no surprise there. The accessories and short dresses were also very popular. The longer tulle dresses and coats however didn't get picked by almost anyone.

Got my wrist band with my turn!

You can tell how early it is by the light in this pic...

The Die-Hards!

7:30 AM

What would brands be without them!... ehr... us!

The Lanvin Area:

The T-Shirts: Now you see them...

...and after this group of girls you wont!

They disappeared in less than a second...

DAMN

Part of the fun for nerdy-me is to collect the oh-so-pretty bag. And boxes!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Gone are the days when I used to peruse around Anna Sui's little shop of wonders in Soho, New York. I love her style, and her shop is so brilliantly designed. So cozy and magical. Her RTW can be more on the expensive side, but there where (are) so many unique little bijoux inside that you can't help but exit with one of them. Such a treat for oneself! And it is just-so-hard to find her stuff anywhere else around... (Maybe in Asia it's easier... boh)

Ahh.... but I don't live in NY anymore. And lately it has come to my attention how lazy I have become about accessories. I have basically been wearing the same ring, earrings and bracelets almost every day since September. This cannot continue!

So as a very 2010-2.0-informed-customer, I have been looking around for that perfect little ring. And from what I've been seeing, I can tell you right away that there are 3 main trends when it comes to jewelry right now: 1. Crystals and Unpolished Rocks; 2.Insects... think Bottega Veneta's scarab beetle rings;3. Skulls, Skeletons/Bones and Tribal motives-Perfect for channeling your inner metal-head or vampy girl act. And lots and lots of gold!

And of course... Deer Antlers are EVERYWHERE this season! (Not just in jewelry).

In short: Absolutely no excuse for accessory-laziness!
Me?... I always go for the colorful and sort of whimsical pieces, so here is my short list:

My best find so far! All rings are around $350, and every stone/crystal has a special property to it. It's so new-age chic! And perfect to wear with a Christopher Kane Resort 2011 'Out of Space' print dress!

Monday, November 15, 2010

A year ago today I made my first post. Which means that Currently Misplaceddeserved to have its own little Birthday celebration! Some 112 posts later... WOW!

The place:Happy Day. The cutest cupcake bakery! (And I do LOVE a good cupcake). There are 2 in Madrid, one in Malasaña area and the other one at La Latina. And the design is so cute, it has this American-retro-50's vibe.
I definitely recommend it for a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon.

Also, the Mini B-Cards you see on the first photo are the ones I created for my blog (Please note the 'production' that went into this photo! lol). It has been so much fun to give them away to new friends and contacts. They make me feel like such a professional blogger! hehe. I printed them through MOO, and I'm SO happy with the results. You should check out their website.

Red Velvet. Yum! My Fave...

A blog year does feel like forever! It's something like dog years. Where 1=3 (or something like that...). But now I cannot imagine my life without CM. I am sort of a compulsive researcher you see, so without a blog where would all those links and photos and design-focused trips go??

So I am definitely looking forward to a second round.
Thank you for following!

Monday, November 8, 2010

This is a very cool cover fromIDEA, a Japanese graphics magazine. It was designed by Tadanori Yokoo, since this issue of the magazine, No. 342, featured his Selected Works: 1960-1970. Yokoo (Japan, 1936), is a graphic designer, illustrator and artist. And his style, seems to me, is a really nice mix of influences such as Katsushika Hokusai(Famous Japanese Wave anyone??..) -he is Japanese after all- and sixties psychedelic illustrations (Seymour Chwast in specific, for example). Well at least Yokoo's earlier work...

I think getting a book of him could be a great addition to any design book collection... Hmm. (Already on it...!)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

This week a very special box arrived at the door. Ah!...a box full of promise if I ever saw one...

I had been looking for the perfect everyday-black-boots for a while, but being in Madrid... well, El Corte Inglés (the only department store in the country) sort of sucks! And while there are many great boutiques in the city, they don't have all the brands, nor the entire collections, or sizes. So online shopping becomes a very welcomed solution. But it looks like Spanish people aren't really used to that yet...

I got into Yoox, and found my perfect boots fairly quickly. It is a great Italian website. Not as nice as Net-a-Porter, but it has SO MANY things! Brands like Chloe, Celine, Givenchy and Moschino are not present in Madrid; but you can find them easily on Yoox for example. But again, nobody here seems to know this website...

Such a waste of opportunity.

And lucky, lucky me, when there is only 1 pair left (often size 36 or 41...), prices go down. A lot! And I'm a 36. That may be why I usually end up buying boots online hehe. Which might be one of the most risky things to buy online... and when they arrived the suspense was killing me. But in the end, it all worked out well: They fit perfectly!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

It is no secret that Halloween is my favorite holiday. Why? Because it is the day when most people feel free enough to become whatever their alter egos or fantasies are. Play. There should be more occasions for this! One day is definitely not enough!! Then again, if you find the right festivals or parties to go to... Hmm.

My weekend began with a costume party at a friend's apartment. It became sort of massive: At its hight, I think some 80 people were in that place. Met some cool new people, ran into good old friend. Great. I was dragged into Pacha after that. And let me tell you something, when I moved to Madrid a few months ago, the last place I though I'd be stepping into was Pacha. Maybe it has to do with my experience of that club in New York, it sucks. Big time. The people... the place... Yuck! Then this summer I went to Pacha in Ibiza and well, at least as infrastructure goes, it is quite amazing. Although (beyond Pacha) it was a slight disappointment for me to see how 'mainstream' Ibiza is. It was my first time there though, so I was bound to do the 'club tour'. But next time I will be looking into a more underground, on-the-beach, private-house-party experience. Apart from that, just to clarify things, Ibiza was indeed magic. And I'm in love with the Balearics.

But anyways, as I was saying... All things considered, Pacha Madrid is not the hellish experience I had concocted in my mind. It was actually fun. Of course, beeing in the VIP helps a lot (and I have to thank all my great new friends for that!)... but most importantly, I discovered that on the top floor (also within the VIP I guess...) there is a smaller room called Cielo (a name that incidentally brings warm and fuzzy memories- about Cielo club in NY... which, circa 2006, was simply the best!) were 2 DJs were playing rock music (...and I love electronic music but Rock can be SO good every now and then...). Oh Oh. As I was walking into this room and heard the music, I told my friend (who probably doesn't even remember me saying this anyways) what I know to be the truth: That me + alcohol + rock = a mess. I mean, it is only a matter of time until my ridiculous air guitar comes up. Speaking of alter egos.... yeap, you guessed it: A Rock Star! I grew up listening to all those 80's glam rock bands. You know, the ones that made Aquanet (a highly flammable kind of hair spray) a very profitable business. Well... I was young, there was no Youtube, and I had no one to learn this sort of thing from. Not that I was a teenager during the 80's or anything... I was a baby! But I never really identified with the whole grunge thing. I always preferred the 80's spirit of good times, parties and so on.

Back to the music at Cielo, it was a mix of everything from 50's Rock 'n' Roll, to Phoenix... with everything from the Grease soundtrack, George Michaels and The Ramones in between (and by the way, I'm calling all this Rock just to simplify things). It all made sense somehow, and I ended up jumping on my very high, high-heels for God knows how long. Hours. But at the end of the night I was channeling a lot less Joey Ramone, and empathizing a lot more with ballerinas and their poor abused feet. And so I jumped into a cab and escaped. That's what I love about big cities, you can always count on cabs for emergency exits.

On Sunday, although I was aching allover, I dragged myself and a friend to CINESHOCK (look it up on Facebook), on Cines Luna. It is a project that Popy Blasco (one of my Coolhunting teachers at IED) and a few other guys came up with to recuperate/use/save that old movie theater. Basically they screen type B movies there about once a month. It is free, you can drink (alcohol brands sponsor the events so you get to drink for free!) and smoke.

Sounds like fun?? Hell yeah!

And of course for Halloween they had a double feature special, with The Midnight Hour and Trick or Treat. The only bad thing is that you have to get there early and queue. A very long queue because everyone else in the city [it seemed] thought it was a really cool idea as well. And there is only space for like 200 people inside. Mission failed. Because I got there only 10 mins before they opened the doors, and so I was too far back in the line. No matter, I'll try again next time! You see, the thing is that I grew up watching this kind of movies on TV, at night, in the dark, alone in my room. I loved it! There was nothing better for me than a night with The Return of the Living Dead for example lol! (My parents used to worry a little bit about this behavior...). So after a much needed stop at Starbucks, I headed back with my friend to his apartment, were the party had been, and were his roommates were already drinking, again, and getting ready for Pacha... AGAIN! Mad men let me tell you...

As for my costume, well, I improvised. I put on a Miu Miu headband that I bought last year in Milan: A Queen-B crown. And surprisingly enough 3 people totally guessed I was 'Blair Waldorf'. Strangely enough, one of the guessers was a guy. Hmmm. Also, I wore this Sonia by Sonia Rykiel sweater that has the drawing of a shirt with a jacket (with pockets, buttons and all) on it. So sort of guyish right? This is because secretly I was also dressed as Mary Beth Mayfair. Since I just finished reading The Witching Hour last week. WOW! What an AMAZING book! A true Southern Gothic novel. And it took me like 2 months to finish it, which was a treat in itself because I absolutely hate when I finish a good book too fast. And Mary Beth (obviously a character from this book), one in a very long line of a witch family, was born on 1872... and because of 'the times', she used to dress as a man, to disguise herself, and be able to go 'downtown' to party. I think I would have done the same had I needed to! : )

But of course, my Mary Beth semi-costume was sort of impossible for anyone to guess...

Uff... I have been writing a lot, haven't I? I was trying something different for the sake of it, but generally, I'm too private about my life and a little shy to keep writing like this hehe. Basically, I just enjoy sharing cool stuff I find here and there everyday. Which leads me to the work of Hattie Stewart: I found her blog this weekend and it has been so much fun going through it. I love her dark-and-twisty yet cheerfully colorful illustrations. Her style reminds me a little bit of Keith Haring- Even if only because the bold black lines. And I was reading a little article about her [Here], and was so impressed when I found out that she is only 21!! 21 and still only a student at Kingston Uni in the UK. 21 and a student, and she has already done illustrations for Luellaand Marc Jacobs. Outstanding! And very cool of brands to approach young art students as well.

So here are some Halloween-esque illustrations created by Hattie Stewart for Luella in 2009: